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eMOLT Update 2024-10-04
Weekly Recap
Seasonal mixing is well underway in the Mid-Atlantic, with the upper
mixed layer now reaching 10-15 fathoms further down into the water
column (yellow profile). Along the coast of Downeast Maine, the water
column is already well mixed, with temps in the low 50s throughout the
water column (purple and teal profiles). A warm core ring is visible on
the surface near Atlantis Canyon (green profile and SST map).
This week, the eMOLT fleet recorded 131 tows of sensorized fishing
gear totaling 2808 sensor hours underwater. The warmest recorded bottom
temperature was 65.3 F south of Long Island in approximately 18 fathoms
(red profile) and the coldest recorded bottom temperature was 44.9 F on
the eastern edge of Georges Bank in approximately 140 fathoms (blue
profile). Below, you can see these profiles plus a few other temperature
profiles of interest across the region from the last week.

Figure 1 – Temperature profiles collected by eMOLT participants
over the last week. The blue profile is where the coldest bottom
temperature was measured and the red profile is where the warmest bottom
temperature was measured. All other colors are assigned randomly.
Colored points on the map indicate where profiles of the same color were
collected.

Figure 2 – Sea surface temperatures from NASA’s
Group for High Resolution Sea Surface Temperature on October 2,
2024. The approximate location of a profile collected by an eMOLT
partner vessel showing the vertical structure of the ring is represented
with a red pin.
Congratulations to our collaborators at Massachusetts Maritime
Academy for their first successful deployment and retrieval of a
dissolved oxygen logger in Buzzards Bay. Cadets in an environmental
monitoring class at the Academy are using an eMOLT system as part of
their monitoring at an eelgrass restoration site southeast of the Hog
Island Channel. They’re also providing us with a more realistic test
system to push software updates out to before we run updates on all of
your vessels.
This week, Nick and George spent some time down in Point Judith to
reinstall systems on the F/V Lightning Bay and F/V Cody. Thanks to Dave
and Capt. Jay for their help discussing antenna and sensor placement on
those vessels. We’ve also been chasing down some issues in our data
pipeline with individual vessels. These problems seem to have mostly
been caused by misplaced special characters in vessel names. Finally,
we’ve been working with other scientists within NOAA to make the eMOLT
data more useful in the broader oceanographic enterprise. Thanks to
Dr. Jiangtao Xu at the National Ocean Service for her feedback on our
data products. Thanks also to the team at Ocean Data Network for their
persistence in building a pipeline from eMOLT and other Fishing Vessel
Ocean Observing Network programs into the World
Meteorological Organization’s Global Telecommunications System
(GTS). The GTS disseminates data in near-real-time to operational
weather and ocean forecasting centers around the world and enables
global distribution of real-time data.
Register Now for the Northeast Cooperative Research Summit
We have officially booked The Westin Portland
Harborview for the 2025 Northeast Cooperative Research Summit, which
will be held on January 28th, 2025! Please mark your calendars. The web
pages are live and information about registering and presenting at the
summit is available here.
Please reach out to Thomas
Swiader with any questions. Registration closes on November 8, 2024.
THERE ARE ONLY TWO STIPENDS LEFT FOR COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN, SO
REGISTER NOW IF YOU WANT ONE! This year, in addition to the Summit
itself, we’re working with partners offer tours of some facilities down
on the waterfront in Portland the day before. Currently, the plan is to
visit the Portland Fish Exchange, Ready Seafood, and the Gulf of Maine
Research Institute. We’ll have more information about how to register
for the tours in the coming weeks.
System Hardware Upgrade List
The following vessels remain on our list for hardware upgrades. If
you aren’t on the list and think you should be, please reach out.
Note that this list is different from our new install
queue.
- F/V Brooke C *
- F/V Excalibur
- F/V Kaitlyn Victoria
- F/V Kyler C
- F/V Linda Marie
- F/V Nathaniel Lee *
- F/V Noella C
- F/V Sao Paulo
- F/V Sea Watcher I
- F/V Virginia Marise
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the
Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association
Some sensors around Scorton Creek continue to show low levels of
Dissolved Oxygen with one sensor reading Very Low late last week. In
eastern Cape Cod Bay, DO levels are back to normal.

Figure 3 – Dissolved oxygen observations from Cape Cod Bay
collected by participants in the eMOLT program and the Cape Cod Bay
Study Fleet program operated by Massachusetts Division of Marine
Fisheries and the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. Green dots
indicate dissolved oxygen values in the normal range (> 6 mg/L),
yellow dots indicate low dissolved oxygen values (4-6 mg/L), orange dots
indicate very low dissolved oxygen values (2-4 mg/L), and red dots
indicate critically low values (< 2 mg/L).
Bottom Temperature Forecasts
Doppio
This week, ~80% of bottom temperature observations were within 2
degrees (F) of the Doppio forecasted value at those points. The forecast
performed best in the Mid-Atlantic. Bottom temperature observations in
coastal Maine and along the edge of the continental shelf were warmer
than the forecast, and observations in Cape Cod Bay and on Stellwagen
were slightly cooler than the forecast.

Figure 4 – Performance of the Doppio forecast’s bottom
temperature layer over the last week relative to observations collected
by eMOLT participants. Red dots indicate areas where bottom temperature
observations were warmer that predicted. Blue dots indicate areas where
bottom temperature observations were cooler than predicted. Bottom
temperature observations are compared with the most recent forecast run
available before the observation was made.

Figure 5 – The most recent Doppio bottom temperature forecast.
The gray line is the 50 fathom line and the black line is the hundred
fathom line. Purple shades indicate cooler water.
Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System

Figure 6 – The most recent bottom temperature forecast from the
Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System GOM7 model. Purple shades
indicate cooler water.

Figure 7 – The most recent bottom temperature forecast from the
Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System MassBay model. Purple shades
indicate cooler water.
Cooperative Research Opportunity – FREE Airmar Weather Stations
Our partners at Ocean Data Network, based out of Portland, Maine are
looking for fishing vessels operating in the Gulf of Maine that are
interested in receiving a FREE Airmar weather station
installation this fall. The weather data stream will integrate with the
wheelhouse electronics to give captains real time weather data on their
navigation software while recording and sending the data to the National
Weather Service to improve offshore weather forecasting for everyone
operating in the region! In order to qualify, a vessel must have a NMEA
2000 vessel electronics system and relatively modern navigation
software, such as Time Zero, if they want to be able to visualize the
data in the wheelhouse. The system will provide air temperature,
barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction in real time. This
is a pilot project looking for ten vessels to participate. Vessels need
to fish close to year-round. If you’re fishing hard, have these
electronics on board, and want to help improve offshore forecasting
accuracy, please reach out to:
Jack Carroll jack@oceandata.net
NOAA and UNH Launch Seafloor Mapping Project Northeast of Cape
Cod
In October 2024, a team of government, academic, and industry
partners will undertake an effort to expand the capabilities of uncrewed
systems to support NOAA missions to map, characterize, and explore the
submerged waters of the United States. This month-long seafloor mapping
mission will test the use of two NOAA-owned DriX uncrewed surface
vehicles (USVs) operated from a shorebased operations center. For
project updates, check out this
website. A map of the planned operation area can be found below.

Figure 8 – The planned DriX operations area east of
Boston.
All the best,
-George and JiM
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